Petroleum oil is used in many applications as a lubricant, cooling medium, electric insulator, and the like. Some applications for lubricating oil are found in environments where the oil becomes mixed with substantial amounts of water, sludge, metal cuttings, and other pollutants and other diluents. If the application involves any substantial volume of oil, it is usually cost-efficient to install a system for recovering from such a mixture the oil in purified form such that it may be recycled to the sites which require lubricating oil to function properly. For example, rolls, presses, dies, etc. in a steel mill require ample lubrication of bearings, journals, bushings, etc. and in use the oil becomes contaminated with water, dirt, metal cuttings, and the like. There is a need for a reliable system to purify the polluted oil for reuse.
It is an object of this invention to supply a novel system for recovering purified oil from a dirty mixture of oil, water, etc. It is another object of this invention to provide such a system to be used with an oil mixture containing high percentages of water. Still other objects may become apparent from the more detailed description which follows.